BUGIS or Bugi, a bold, self-reliant, maritime people of Celebes, of which they occupy the northern part, and are known, in consequence, as Macassar men. The Bugis, originally from the same stock as the Malay, are superior to all other natives of the Archipelago in their spirit of adventure. They are a brave, active, haughty, fierce, and vigorous race. They love justice, and are faithful to their bonds, but seldom forgive injuries. Under the name of Macassars, they form the flower of the colonial troops in the Dutch ser vice. Macassar was the most notorious place in the Eastern Archipelago for the Bugis people to run amok. On the average, one or two occurred in the month. It was in fact the national mode of committing suicide amongst the natives of Celebes, and was therefore the fashionable mode of escaping difficulties. Ten or twenty persons were sometimes killed and wounded at one of the amok. Stabbing and killing at all he meets, the amok runner is at last overpowered, and dies in all the excitement of battle. It is a delirious in toxication, a temporary madness, absorbing every thought and action (Wallace, i. p. 174). Although they bear some personal resemblance to the Malays, arising probably from a common origin, in every quality but courage they are essentially different. Exposed to the same temptations, and most skilful and adventurous navigators, they have never adopted the occupation of piracy, but abhor and resist it, and defend themselves against the Malay prabus with the most heroic and desperate valour whenever they are attacked, proceeding, if overpowered, to blow• up their vessels rather than submit. The poorest of these hardy islanders is as impatient of a blow as a European gentleman ; and it is permitted to any one to avenge an affront by the death of the person who offers it. A more than Spartan training is bestowed on children. The males at the age of five or six are removed from their parents, lest they should be made effeminate by indulgence, and they are not restored to their family until they are of an age to marry. They are the Phoenicians of the Indian Archipelago ; and there is not a coast, from the northern shores of the Australian continent to the Malay Peninsula, where their ships are not habitually seen. They leave' their country in the beginning of the eastern monsoon on a trading voyage, and proceed west ward until they reach Singapore. With vessels of
peculiar build, of from forty to fifty tons burden, they conduct almost the whole carrying trade of the Archipelago. They own at least 1000 ships, the outward cargoes consisting of cotton cloths, gold dust, edible birds' nests, tortoiseshell, trepang or sea-slugs for Chinese epicures, scented woods, coffee, and rice ; and in spite of the jealous and restrictive policy of the Dutch, they have greatly contributed to diffuse British manufactures throughout the islands of the eastern seas.
In the beginning of the western monsoon, they go in great numbers to the Aru islands, which is the principal rendezvous for the people of Ceram, Goram, the Ki islands, Tenimber, Baba, and the adjacent coast of New Guinea, a distance from Macassar of upwards of 1000 miles. They carry English calicoes, cotton goods of their own manufacture, Chinese gongs, and arrack ; and the return cargoes are tortoiseshell, mother-of-pearl shell, pearls, birds of paradise, and trepang, the Malay term for all the kinds of holothurim or sea cucumbers. Of trepang alone about 14,000 pikuls are yearly shipped from Macassar, of a value of 600,000 dollars, or £150,000. It is estimated that the annual value of goods carried by the Bngis to the Aru islands from Macassar alone is 80,000 dollars, or 200,000 guilders ; and of those taken to the Aru group from other places, 20,000 dollars, or 50,000 guilders. Bugis are subdivided into many nations, — united, however, by the common ties of similar language and similar in stitutions. There is but one of their tribes distinguished for maritime enterprise and com mercial spirit, the Wajo or Ta-wajo people. Their original site is in the interior of Celebes, on the northern banks of an extensive fresh-water lake, 24 miles in breadth, from which a river issues, to fall into the Gulf of Boni. Their voyages extend from Siam to N. Guinea, and from Manilla to Acheen. They are the great carriers of the Archipelago. In the year 1825 they had 786 trading prahus. Amongst the Bugle traders to the east, Kilwara is their metropolis. It is a mere sandbank, lying between Ceram Laut and Kissa, and offers good anchorage in both monsoons. Horses are bought at Gorontoto in Celebes.— Quarterly Review, No. 222, p. 502 ; Bikmore, 101; Oriental Herald, vii. p. 140.